I really included this on the survey for fun just because I know a few players in particular request it on every single survey, haha. What I did not anticipate is the overwhelming number of responses that did wants cats and also went back to the comments section to reiternate to me how much they wanted cats.

Soo, I kind of feel like we should talk about it, so I'm making this thread so that we can discuss it. Although, truly, no promises, this is not a decision anyone on the staff wants to take lightly and we didn't actually think the suggestion would be so popular. But, let's talk about it!

It would be a lot of work to add cats, but less work than you probably think. So it IS possible, buuttt.

My concerns are the following:

#1 it would be more information for the server to handle, and it would be more things happening internally. Our server should be able to handle this, but it's worth noting anyway. I think it would have to come with a massive clean up of old accounts and old horses/dogs (which should happen anyway, but it's a lot of work for a small organizational payoff right now, but if we were to add cats, it would be more necessary).

#2 it would be a pretty major deviation from the genre. Although, to be fair, I think only the old HL-style games have horses AND dogs. Most of the them these days are one or the other. So really, there's nothing stopping us from doing whatever we want. But we did just get new art that does not involve cats (although, yes, this could be fixed) and since our name is HORSE Phenomena, I think we're already at a marketing disadvantage because we don't have an inclusive name, haha.

#3 I don't know a goddamn thing about cat genetics, so if we all collectively decide that we want genetics and cats, that might be a problem.

#4 is kind of an expansion on #2, but HP is meant to be a specific type of old-school game, and I don't want to lose touch with that. That's our whole schtick. And I don't want to add things that would alienate players who really do want an old school horse and dog SIM game experience. But we are our own game, we're not HL despite the similarities, and we've been our own game for a whole decade, so I don't think we should be beholden to old industry standards just for the hell of it. So if truly you all want this, then YOU are HP's playerbase and you should get to decide how you want to play, you know?

Soo, tell me this:

Do you want cats? Why or why not?

@Koni, I haven't 100% quit yet...

So I guess it's time to add my two cents.

The reason I said I wanted cats on the survey is because it reminded me of Animal Phenomena and how I had the first of the breed over there for Siberians (the domestic cat not tigers). I really enjoyed being able to have them over there but since the game is so inactive (I couldn't tell you my login if I wanted to) I think it would be fun to possibly have the opportunity over here on a game that is active and up to date. That being said, I also understand not wanting to add too many critters that aren't horses and dogs because then it becomes a situation of where do we draw the line. Dogs and horses sure. Cats ok. Dragons? Cerberus (ok can we actually have that one as a cash shop item I just realized that would be amazing around Halloween dammit I hate when I have ideas in the middle of a point)? Sheep? When do we say it's enough? 

So for me, I could go either way. I think it would be fun but I also see why it could be a potentially bad idea.

However please ponder the idea of Cerberus as a Halloween breed because seriously I can't possibly be the only person who has thought of this xD

I don't know how I feel about this. I think I'm leaning a little toward 'no' just because it just seems like too many animal options. And I wouldn't partake in the barn cat cash shop item either. Not because I feel strongly against such, I just am not leaning towards that way. I love cats, but I don't really need them added to the game to make it a perk for me. 

I'm loving all the feedback so far! Keep it coming!

I will say with regard to Animal Phenomena, it was pretty different in concept to HP. At some point I would like to work on it again, but HP is a full time job all by itself, so AP was shelved for later, but if it were to re-open, it would still pretty different - it was designed to have different types of shows, equippable items, and in general more animal care involved beyond just training.

Horses will always be the main part of the game. But some people are cat people and some are dog people. There are probably some people on HP who would breed cats because they hate dogs. xD I'm not one of them, but I am definitely a cat person and I will always choose cats over dogs. ;) I'd at AT MINIMAL at least 5 more upgrades wham bam. ijs xD

*shameless cops to being one of the ritual cat requesters*

I love cats and I frequently search for games where I can breed them, but all the ones I find are horribly inactive or confusing. It would be awesome to have them on a game that's familiar and that I already adore - like Pants said.

I would love to have them as a full option like horses and dogs, training them for points and aiming for the rankings and breeding a whole horde of them - but I do understand the desire to keep them on the dl lmao. I'd rather have Cat Phenomena I think, then go all out with cats here.

But here's an alternative maybe?

Perhaps instead of buying the cat(s) from the cash shop, buy the cattery? And then you can buy cats from the store and go about training them, etc. Once you buy the cattery, a link for it can show up on your page, maybe in the middle of the two player info tables or beneath the kennel info to even out those tables? You can probably also put a cap on the number of cats allowed per cattery/account (that hurt to type but it's a logical limiter im sorry). The cats you have could be displayed either on the page beneath horses and dogs, or only from the link to the cattery (although that is more inconvenient, it does emphasize that cats are more subtle than a main thing).

So there's a limiting factor to breeding cats, but not in such a way that makes it not worth it to breed (and therefore to even add) cats. And then players who don't want cats can play as normal without having to even worry about it/being affected by it/having things moved around or changed to make room for it. However, it would still require all the cleanup and server space.

That's just an idea to consider :P Overall, I think it'd be fun to have cats but I totally understand why that's probably not gonna happen. If you push me for a vote, I'll always say yes though :P

If you don’t want cats cool. Think of it as a possible money, selling those un-used cat shows and or cat tickets? I’ll be privately training cats if it were to happen. 

I would be ecstatic to see cats added! Maybe if I had access to virtual cats I'd be less likely to bring more real ones home lol. But yeah, if interest is high enough to justify the effort required to implement them, I'm all for it!

If genetics were added, I could see color genetics for cats being really fun. Like red tabbies: the genetic info for this coat color is stored on the X chromosome, so female red tabbies are significantly rarer because they need to inherit the red tabby gene from both parents. So breeding a female red tabby could be a fun goal.

i love cats on here. but will it be easyer to just bring Animal Phenomena back? and have cats there??

I am 1000% obsessed with the idea of adding cats.  I'm with Maha, I would be private training my cats as well! ... but I do see/respect all sides of the discussion

At first I really was mostly interested in the wild cats, but I love the barn cat idea - it's a nice way to tie the cats in if it wouldn't cause a disruption with current membership (and of course adding it in).  Mango's idea to set it up differently thorugh a link may possibly help offset those who aren't interested in cats being added at all.

Haha my boyfriend would LOVE it if it could keep me from bringing real ones home, but I don't plan on that ever changing :)

@noxhidis LMAO, THIS: "Maybe if I had access to virtual cats I'd be less likely to bring more real ones home lol."

is me XD XD #ded

think of the possible epic cat graphics! hello crazy looking 90s pretty please!

Ignoring the fact that I'm not actively playing right now, I would say no to cats. From a business standpoint it's steering away from the mission statement of HP and would really require re-branding to adapt to that. Also, I've always found the number of breeds on here to be too many and that the excess in options lead to less competition from players. Cats would segragate players even more. For the work involved to add them, I don't think it would increase activity or profits.

Besides, 99% of people own domestic longhair/shorthair cats and have no idea what breed they really are xD

I feel the same as Trig honestly. We really dont need cats. It takes away from the feel of HP. I always invisioned HP as a barn setting, yes we have barn cats (at most barns). But its not like we breed (on purpose LOL) and show them. So when talking purered cats and all the classses they can have, its like I want to say why bother? I feel our resources can be put to good use somewhere else.

ALSO. if it for whatever reason starts lagging the server,  everyone will complain about that (including me haha!) and it would be costly to upgrade.

That’s a good point, too! Although the same could be said about barn dogs.

We already have dogs, and in rl lots people are (hopefully responsible) backyard breeders. They might sell pups from their two great herding Border Collies, for example. But if we stick with that logic, then we shouldn't have dogs nor cats on HP, since it's Horse Phenomena after all...

Edit: then there are the people who do breed and show cats on purpose, just like with dogs and horses, so some will say we should have cats because of that. But I repeat, it is Horse Phenomena.

I have been mulling this over since I posted the topic, and it does seem like people either want cats are indifferent to them. Or don't think they fit with the genre of the game, I do think my previous point about not really having to stick to a game model that doens't really exist anymore outside of us is valid, though.

I think ultimately it comes down to:

1. How many people would breed cats?

2. Would it detract from the gameplay for people who aren't interested in cats?

Realistically, if we cleaned up store horses and dogs with 0 points and no offspring, it would probably take AWHILE before having cats on the game caused a server strain, but you also have to look at it from the angle where that's going to happen eventually anyway as the game grows and ages and more and more horses and dogs are bought/bred. We might have to offset the auto shows is the only thing.

This is something that would take awhile to add, but I don't foresee it being something that's complicated to add. It would mostly just be a lot of making sure we didn't miss anything.

But the holiday months are coming up and they're pretty rough for me and the rest of the HP staff because of all the events we do, so this is something that probably couldn't actually be added until the beginning of next year, if we decided to do it.

If we had cats, I can honestly say that I would absolutely breed a few of them cause I think it's fun and I would enjoy the challenge of being the first one to have the breed and have the first one to reach so many points or whatever. It would be a new challenge for me! 


Even without the cats though - I would support cleaning up the old store animals that have no points/ aren't active / don't have any lines. 

I own cats in real life and always have I also had accts on horseland where I bred cats which was great but I really dont think we need all the problems Sam mentioned not even counting the expense of adding them and if/when Sam starts up animal phenomena again we could have them on there 

I would breed some!

If anything, having cats would benefit people who don't breed them because they'd be able to sell a private cat show, and cat tickets each week/month. But otherwise, it shouldn't effect them at all.

And I agree with Saturnia, I support cleaning up old/non-pointed/bred animals anyway, regardless of if cats happen or not.